Thread: Trans Canada Pipeline digging up our field

I used to be one of those a$$holes that responded to idiots that drove heavy equipment across our right-of ways....it never ceased to amaze me how some dufus operator always thought he knew how deep the pipe was.... until he sinks in over the pipe and damages it or even worse knocks a hole in it.... then the pipeline company is responsible for the clean up and all the bad press... then has to try and recoup the costs from some two-bit hillbilly construction company....you wouldn't believe how much pipe every year is damaged in this way. The line crossing rules and one-call proceedures exsist to keep everyone safe so that all can go home at the end of the day..... rupture a high pressure oil or gas liquids line and they won't find enough of you to bury.....

That's pretty crazy, you can't just walk a machine across a buried pipe... I guess they are located away from 99% of everyone but still, pretty inconvenient.

My brother just talked to the Kinder Morgan people that we dug a ditch off the ROW, the Burnaby "incident" in 2007 has cost over $30,000,000 to date, and it is expected to go for another 10 years in the court systems
Minimum fine for going over their line inside the ROW or disturbing the soil directly over the line, we can expect to pay $500,000 here.

You don't screw around with these people here.

__________________The amount of energy necessary to refute bullsh*t is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it

The in pipe sensor robot (pig) found a few things wrong in one of the pipes in our area. My guess is a stone heaved against the pipe. There are three sites, one of which is beside our grain elevator. They have a LinkBelt 240lx excavator and brand new Cat D6K LGP dozer on site.

A rather hefty stone

The pipe is now fully exposed. This one transports crude oil.

They are stock piling the hard pan with the dozer

I'm not sure what the deal with this bucket it, I think it is for digging under the pipe?

I would love this ditching bucket

That is a really nice dozer

They are going to have loads of fun picking all these stones

I like this pic

Are you sure it's transporting crude? I work for TransCanada and too my knowledge we haven't begun to transport crude. The Fort Mcmoney to gulfcoast oil pipeline isn't finished at this point. There's also some legistation in the US congress potentially blocking the crude at the US border. The reason being is that the Gov is trying to mandate crude to have less than 5% carbon content. The oil that Syncrude is producing from the bitchumin is 8-10%. But rest assured if there's a demand TC will deliver. At this point in time TC is the largest pipline company in North and Central America.

what's the ground pressure of 200 size hoe or whatever you guys aren't allowed to drive over pipes with?

The 320CLU's are around 5.3 psi with cab guarding thumb and under belly guarding.
The tractors that most farmers use have more PSI, and they are dragging ploughs and sub soiler shanks, and they don't seem to care.

__________________The amount of energy necessary to refute bullsh*t is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it

Most farmers are smart enough and have enough experience when it's wet to stay off the land, never sit in one spot and have no reason to dig into their cropland.

Equipment operators usually don't care about the land they work on, only realise it's too wet when they bellypan the machine, and are often under pressure from the boss to get the job done and get on to the next one. Also when they get stuck, they usually don't sit and wait for a cat to come and pull them out.... they start to rip and tear (especially hoe operators), push and pull the dirt around trying to get out..... they turn a stuck machine and a 20 foot long ground disturbance into a 70 foot diameter 4 foot deep disaster waiting to happen.....

that pipeline is probably natural gas. Thats what they usually are around here. About 15 years ago my father in law was asked to dig a hole for a farmer in a field. He went down a ways and found what he figured was an old car buried there. He tried for 15 minutes to pull it out of there. It was deep and he didn't have an extend a hoe, so he couldn't quite get around it but he kept pulling and whacking and pulling some more......lol he tells me that story about once a month still. Made quite an impression on him. He beat the hell out of it before he figured it out and filled the hole in and skedaddled. I guess it never leaked anyway.

And some night after your father in law tells the funny story on how he damaged someone elses' property because he was a stupid and irresponsible hillbilly with a backhoe, the corrosion cell that he created when he damaged the coating on the pipeline finally weakens the pipe to the point that it ruptures....
And the farmer and his family are killed in the resulting leak and fireball.... or the school bus full of kids driving down the road the next morning drive through the plume and ignite it..... yup, your father in law is one funny dude....maybe ask him about the time he backed into another car at the mall and then drove away.... that's a knee slapper too!!!